1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bookbinding processing apparatus and control method thereof and program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the printing industry, publications are published by carrying out various steps. These steps include receiving manuscripts, applying a design to the manuscripts, editing the layout, comps (presentations based on printing), proofing (layout corrections and color corrections), press proofs (proof printing), plate making, printing, post-processing tasks, delivery, and so on.
Thus far, in the conventional printing industry, offset plate printing presses have been used in the printing process, necessitating the plate making process. However, it is not easy to perform corrections on these plates once they have been created, and such corrections also incur significant expense. Therefore, careful proofing (that is, work involving careful layout checks and color confirmations) is essential when creating plates. For this reason, it has taken considerable time in order to publish such publications. Furthermore, the devices used in each step are often large-scale devices, requiring expert knowledge to operate, and thus the expertise of an experienced operator has been indispensable.
In response to this situation, a POD (print-on-demand) system that uses electro-photographic printing apparatuses, inkjet printing apparatuses, and so on has recently been proposed (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open 2004-310746, 2004-310747). Using such a POD system, the need for plate making and other complicated processes mentioned above is obviated.
However, there remains room for investigation when envisioning practical application of such POD systems. For example, the number of types of post-processing apparatuses such as a trimmer, bookbinding device, and so on, connected to the printing apparatus, will increase, and the number of functions to be set on the printing apparatus for those post-processing apparatuses will also increase. Further, not only will the number of types of post-processing apparatuses connected to the printing apparatus increase, but the number of settable items for each post-process will also increase. For this reason the operation to set each type of setting for the post-processes will become complicated for the user, and expert knowledge and experience will be necessary to set appropriate values to obtain an expected result.
In particular, in the case of case binding, which has a large number of items to set, settings beginning with finish size, original size, and cover size, as well as cutting width, cutting angle, and other settings can be set from an operation screen of a printing apparatus. However, these setting values must be within respective limit values inherent to case binding. For this reason, when a value that does not satisfy the limit values is set, an error warning is displayed on the operation screen of the printing apparatus. In this case, while it is desirable to clearly describe a correction method for the settings on the warning screen, when a plurality of setting values are handled, the method for indicating a correction method becomes complicated.
Further, even if the set setting values are enumerated and displayed, simply displaying them causes readability to deteriorate as the number of settable items increases, and it takes a long time for the user to select a desired setting value. In this manner, while fine settings can be made using processing that allows input of a plurality of setting items, enabling a user to create a desired output document, it is extremely difficult to set those appropriate setting values.